d not
fired it. I felt for the lock. On came the Frenchmen; Mr Johnson had
need of all his skill to keep his enemies at bay. The French boatswain
pressed him desperately hard. One of his mates rushed in, and was
bringing down his cutlass with a terrific sweep, which would have half
cut our boatswain in two, when, raising my pistol, I fired at the man's
head. The bullet went through his brain, and his cutlass, though
wounding Johnson slightly in the leg, fell to the deck. The boatswain's
weapon meantime was not idle, and at the same moment it descended with a
sweep which cut the Frenchman's head nearly in two, and he fell dead
among his comrades. It was at that instant the French discovered that
their ship was under way. "Sauve qui peut!" was the cry. Some jumped
overboard and endeavoured to swim on shore. Many leaped below, either
in fear or with determination still to carry on the fight, and others
threw down their arms and cried for mercy. Not a cutlass was raised on
them after that, but the fellows who fled below had got possession of
some muskets, and began firing at all of us who appeared near the
hatchways. A party of our men, however, leaped down among them and
quickly put a stop to their proceedings.

The ship was now completely under our command; the sails filled, she
felt the helm, and was standing down the harbour. Though it appeared to
me nearly an hour, if not more, I found that not five minutes had passed
since the boats got alongside. But we were not quite free. We were
congratulating ourselves on our success, when a shot whistled between
our masts, followed by another, and a heavy battery opened upon us. We
were too busy to reply to it, and the men went about their work just as
coolly as if nothing was occurring. The wind was light, and we were a
long time exposed to the fire of the battery. Mr Johnson, between
pulling and hauling, for he lent a hand to everybody, apostrophised the
masts, and urged them not to get shot away. He evidently thought more
of them just then than of anything else. They were in his department.

"I wonder, Mr Johnson, whether any of us will have to change heads?"
said I.

"If you and I did, you'd look rather funny with my mug on your
shoulders," he answered, with a loud laugh. "Even your own mother
wouldn't know you, I suspect." Just then a shower of grape came
rattling round us, and though I could hear the shot whistling by, close
to my ears, not one of